Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures

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Day one of our Stanley Kubrick coverage!

By Nick Nunziata

Today is the first day in our coverage of the Stanley Kubrick collection from soup to nuts and everything in between. While I'll be doing updates from the Dragoncon convention here in Atlanta over the remainder of the week (and no update on Labor Day!), I hope to get at least one Kubrick review a day until I'm done. The Shining arrives tomorrow...

For those of you younger folks not as much into the works of the great masters (a group of which Kubrick is not only included, but near the top of the heap of), let this be an initiation. For those well aware of his talent (and his sometimes less than perfect results), sit back and enjoy...

The Movie

Three frames before Jack ripped his face off to reveal Christian Slater beneath.

When Stanley Kubrick died after the completion of Eyes Wide Shut in 1999, the film world mourned knowing that the meticulous and somewhat reclusive director would never again provide a film to change the way they looked at the medium.

Shelly Duvall: scarier than ANYTHING out of Stephen King's imagination.

Whether it was the brave anti-war message of Paths of Glory, the taboo infatuations of Lolita, the cold, new mode of storytelling in 2001: A Space Odyssey, or his unflinching look at a little bit of the old ULTRAVIOLENCE in A Clockwork Orange, he set the standard and his longtime friend and associate Jan Harlan has crafted this nearly two and a half hour look back at the man and his career with love, awe, and tact but without fear of sharing the darker side to the director as well.

"I eat IGN DVD readers for breakfast and right now I'm very hungry!"

Broken down into 27 distinct chapter stops either dedicated to one of his 14 films or an aspect of his home life, A Life in Pictures feaures interviews with dozens of people who worked with him over the years and is narrated by none other than his last leading man, Mr. Tom Cruise.

Interesting to see how much of A.I. maintained Kubrick's vision.

Told with reverance, and what is an unmistakable sense of admiration, if follows his path from a creative schoolboy not interested in homework to a budding chess player and photographer soon bitten by the filmmaking bug and is loaded with rare home movies and photographs which showcases a man who always seemed too wise to have ever been a child.

Three frames before El Chupacabra surfaced for some snack.

As we see his early work in films like Day of the Fight and Fear and Desire, there's no clue as to what man lie ahead but once Killer's Kiss and more importantly The Killing things seemed to start picking up steam as Stanley made his name as a filmmaker of substance and vision.

You know that famous shot of Bigfoot looking at the camera...

It then becomes a thrill to see the great movies he made broken down by the actors (featuring Jack Nicholson, Matthew Modine, Malcolm McDowall, Kier Dullea, Stephen Berkoff, and many more) as well as people who were touched by his work (Stephen Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Alan Parker, film critic Richard Schickel, and others) and it further illustrates that what you see is not exactly what you get when you sit to watch one of his movies.

He looks like he knows you've got THE THING inside you and he's going to make you vanish.

If this impeccably made documentary taught me anything, it's that Stanley Kubrick films have to be approached differently than most. While I found some of his films either overrated (A Clockwork Orange) or downright disappointing (Eyes Wide Shut) I'm looking forward to watching them in a new light shone by this documentary.

Even Kubrick liked to capture NATION'S PUNCHED initiations.

He was no doubts a brilliant man. One who took the idea of perfectionism to bizarre new levels and a man who sometimes stomped his crew and cast into the ground... but a brilliant man.

What's gross is that it's Jack Palance's foot.

With the amount of love invested in this film by his wife, daughters, and peers... it truly reminds us how powerful and unpredictable a medium this can be.

9 out of 10

The Video

It should come as a surprise to anyone who knows Kubrick's DVD ouvre that the film is presented in matted widescreen. Usually we debate ad nauseum about the fullscreen approach he often took, but here we get a nice (but not Anamorphic) delivery that's quite nice considering it's a blend of footage from his films, black and white photos, and interviews.

No complaints here.

7 out of 10

The Audio

They gave the film a nice little 5.1 treatment and it shows when clips from Stanley's films are shown because your speakers come to life and threaten to wake up the wife (during my 2nd viewing of the film I was trying to be quiet at 3am as my wife slept and Jack Nicholson and his tennis ball bouncing in The Shining put an end to that!).

Considering this is a documentary... kudos!

8 out of 10

The Extras

To paraphrase Bret Easton Ellis...

LESS THAN ZERO.

1 out of 10

This is a wonderful film, and if you even had an inkling to but this box set... wait no longer.